The political commentary and maneuvering these days shows something of the character of the Congress and the Democratic Party in particular that is, how shall I say this delicately? Well, I can’t. Blood lust. Pure and simple lust for the shedding of blood, specifically in the physical sense, while carrying it out in the figurative manner.

The “buzz word” of the times: “Slow Bleed” says Carl Levin (D-MI) and John Murtha (D-PA), supported by the Democrats of the House, and 17 Republicans, too. You know the ones, the ones running to the sound of the polls, as is the collective daily wisdom of the electorate, measured in quantities of about 1000 to guage, with scientific processes,
to sense the mood.

So, if the Democrats get their way through obfuscation, their slow bleed strategy, will, in their estimation, bleed the support of the voters from the President and the Republicans in general.

What will the “bleeding” look like? Well, not funding more equipment, not funding supplies, and not funding the transport of the replacement and reinforcement troops.

This, if accomplished, will most certainly lead to the withdrawal of the political will to continue the campaign in Iraq in the Global War on Terror. How So? Simple. The troops on the front line, deprived of more compatriots to show the enemy we mean business, short supply on basic combat items, such as ammo and other equipment.

What next? The extrapolated condition is our troops, faced with an already brutal and further emboldened enemy, witll begin to take casualties they should not. THEY.WILL.BLEED. Not figuratively, but literally.

Why? Simple? So Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, John Murtha and their acolytes will then be “given” positions of power, with the reward of the voters by placing a Democratic president in the White House, and securing a majority on the Senate.

Who provides the “life blood” of this path to power? The troops. The troops they support.

The same troops who weren’t supplied with armored HUMVEES, body armor and the many other things the Democrats screamed about. The troops who have changed lives by placing themselves in danger to protect the lives of Iraqis. The troops, who, despite the hypocritical posturing of the Democrats, continue to suit up and enter the streets of Baghdad to face a foe who is little more than the analog of a viral infection in civilization, but a nasty one in any case.

You know, they don’t have to spit on the troops anymore. In the 70s, most of “them” were young people and not in positions where they could control the expenditure of Federal dollars. No, I predict the “spitting” phenomena will be minimal, but this time, the troops could be bled white, like animals slaughtered, all in the name of the blood lust of politicians wanting power, unfettered by dialog with those across the aisle.

Trackbacked at: Third World County, The Pirate’s Cove

Freefire zone! Trackbacks (may show up as “pingbacks,” but they still show up! I think it’s a WordPress 2.1X issue…)

Last week, the conclusion of Episode 1 of Chief Mac stomps the “competition.”

This week, more of the same. If you’re “behind the power curve,” go back two weeks and catch up….I think it’s a great sea story, but it’s told in parts…

With the tenor of camaraderie between various vessels of COMSERVRON TWO having taken a turn towards more “active rivalry,” we received another tasker to conduct an intrusion drill (Z-5-O) against the USS SYLVANNIA (AFS-2). Chief Mac took this one one, too.

The Plan: Send the exercise tested ET2 Krutsch to get by the Quarterdeck watch, once more disguised as a Navy Exchange employee bearing delivery items. One other would be the following “distractor” to inject some confusion so Mike could escape the controlled environs of the entry point of the vessel to do his mischief.

This time the “delivery item” to cause attentive watch standers was one actual birthday cake, to be delivered to the Commanding Officer, CAPT Otto Will, USN. As with the prior event (I’m sure you have gone back and caught up by now), the Chief purchased the cake and a birthday card, complete with a birthday greeting inscribed on the top of the cake, visible through the clear plastic top of the cake box, real name and all….

Mike heads off, in his civvies and hair and beard/moustache pushing the envelope of “well groomed” and climbs the ladder. On arrival, he indicates he has a cake to deliver to a Captain Otto Will for his birthday. Of course he did his best to not act clued in as to the identity of the Ship’s CO….he stood off to the side of the Quarterdeck area, as directed (but not yet asked for an ID of any sort, nor questioned as to if he might be an intruder). About this time, of course, OS1 Blazak mounted the Quarterdeck, requesting permission to come aboard. His “mission” was to find the leading operations specialist to “borrow” some charts. As it turned out, the Officer of the Deck knew OS1, so he played it off as just looking for some info, but…the personall knowledge of who he was ruled him out as being able to be a bad guy for the drill purposes. However, it allowed cover for Mike to head inboard and begin he search for the CO’s Inport Cabin.

He wandered into the deckhouse and central area of the ship, and then to the outbaord side of the main deck. He didn’t know exactly where it was, so he took a chance and asked a sailor where the Captain’s cabin was. At first, he thought he was being led back to the Quarterdeck and the drill would be over, but he was delivered to the Captain’s door and the sailoer knocked, opened the door and announced a visitor the to Captain, who was talking to a Commander and a Master Chief Petty Officer.

Mike was invited in, saying he had a birthday cake for a Captain Will. As most people would be under such circumstances as this the Co was curious as to how this had become his birthday. He looked puzzled, but invited Mike in. Mike set the box on his desk and handed him the birthday card. Capt Will took the card out of the envelope, opened it and proceeded to read.

About this time the smiles began spreading on the faces of the Commander and Master Chief, who were debriefing a human resources assessment training of the ship, so they were not ship’s company, but knew “the drill” all too well (and I’m sure they were also relieved not to be ship’s company right about then). The Master Chief said: “Captain, I think you should read the back of the card.” There, as he closed it and scanned the handwriting on the back of the card, he read “This is a bomb!”

Might I just say Mike indicated Captain Will was not amused. But, on top of the card indicating the future failing grade from the Sqaurdon Commander. But, as Chief Mac had a humorous side, when he had the cake decorated, aroound the sides, in scrolled icing was the inscription “Tick*Tick*Tick.”

And so ends the tale of the days when the gentleman’s approach to “running drills” on each other in the Fat Ship Navy took a turn for the better, or worse, depending on which side of the grade sheet you were on.

C’mon….someone must be writing good material out there…..

Anyhow, while I’m waiting, here’s more of the story I left you hanging with from last week…

Now, the tables had turned and it was going to be the crew of the USS SEATTLE (AOE-3) that would be holding the other end stick during an intrusion drill. Not to fear, OSC Mac, who had done some work with the SEALs in the South East Asian War Games, was in control. I was still and Ensign in training, so I didn’t comprehend all that was going on. Anyway, the Chief concocted a wonderful plan. Step one was to get three believable “intruders.”

• #1: ET2 Mike Krutsch. Disguise? Jeans, flannel shirt, hair pushing the regs. Story? Navy Exchange delivery guy with flowers for the SEATTLE XO.
• #2: OS3 Tom Mazzula. Disguise? Not really, he just wore his dungarees, but…he had a plastic baggie of “green vegetable matter” partially hanging out of his pocket.
• #3: OS2 Relph (I’m not completely sure I have this one right). No disguise either, and nothing special in hand/on his person.

“The Plan:” ET2, with a 3″x5″ card made black with magic marker, covering his red base sticker on the bumper of his personal Vega, drives down the pier (you actually could do that in those days), parking at the foot of the brow. Using his “excuse” of having to deliver the flowers, he would attempt to gain access to the ship. OS3 would, as soon as Mike got almost all the way up the ladder (about 30 feet long), would commence towards the quarterdeck, acting stoned/drunk. As he got the the top of the brow, OS2 Relph would also head aboard the ship. Saturation of the attention of the three watchstanders was the plan, in hopes of getting at least one past the security of the ship.

Well…the results were in quickly, once the “Plan” was put into motion….Krutsch parked right at the foot of the ladder and was hailed from the Quaterdeck. He replied he had flowers (Holding the box high) (oh, yeah, Chief Mac paid for the flowers), and was waved to come up. They never asked for any identification, but then a guy looking kinda drunk was coming up the ladder just now. All attention focused on Mazzula. Mike stood by, then quietly wandered aft on the main deck area and proceed to head for the after superstructure area, where the Executive Officer’s stateroom was. IN the background, imagine the hoots and hollers of the OOD, POOW and Messenger when they “caught a doper!” red-handed….Oh…OS2 Relph came up just as the commotion was in full swing and, not being fully questioned, inquired as to what happened. “WE just caught this guy!” (Holding up baggy of green vegetable matter as proof of the valiant response. Relph siddled off to the side, out of the gaze of the watchstanders….

Oh, yes…I almost forgot. SEATTLE was one of those ships that we could not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard. Why does that matter? You had to have two response teams on call, the Security Alert Team (SAT) and Backup Alert Force (BAF), who would “respond to intrusion attempts and were 1) armed and 2) trained specifically in the use of “lethal force” rules of engagement (ROE).

Mike Krutsch made it to the XO’s office/stateroom and, finding no one in the space, left the box of flowers (with included note “THIS IS A BOMB”) on the desk of the Executive Officer of the USS SEATTLE (AOE-3), having never been challenged by any of the crew on his way through the ship, looking like a civilian or over scruffy sailor in “civies.” He then wandered back to the Quarterdeck area, at which time, the faces of the watch team went white, realizing they had been penetrated in a most unkind manner. “SECURITY ALERT! SECURITY ALERT! QUARTERDECK! AWAY THE SAT! AWAY THE BAF!” sounded on the 1MC General Announcing System. Mike, all grins, when asked if he was an intruder, answer “Yes” (the game rules) and then, realizing, as armed sailors came running, there was someone else unaccounted for…..

“Are you working alone?” “No.” “SECURITY ALERT! SECURITY ALERT!…” They finally found OS2 Relph in the forward part of the ship, where he had wandered off to.

Well, they were mightily embarrassed at being humiliated, but…it was nothing more than payback, with attitude. The Command Duty Officer was obligated to sign three Z-5-O letters, with two having to be indicated that they had been penetrated and failed the drill…..And, our manliness was feeling more intact, having paid the SEATTLE crew back in spades…

Oh, Chief Mac didn’t just roll over and go back to sleep after this operation….come back next Wednesday for the follow on report of sailors in port running drills.

V(oice) A(ctivated) L(aptops) for OUR – I(njured) T(roops) as it were.

Yes, we did a big drive last year for about 14 days. I just thought I’d make a point of reminding anyone who comes by to read that the project to get laptops placed in the major medical facilities for our permanently of temporarily disabled soldiers/sailors/airmen and Marines is a year round effort, so if you have a few spare dollars, now that the Christmas bills are paid down, maybe consider this worthwhile program to help get our troops back into life.

The latest news from FbL, the lady who co-parented the project, is here.

It seems Chuck Z, the other co-parent of VALOUR-IT, is headed back for his 34th surgery as a result of his wounds in Iraq that, in a bittersweet manner, led to this all being a project that has helped many recover their ability to communicate with friends and family.

Oh, and if you missed the link above, you can donate here!

Michael Reagan (no relation to President Reagan). Vietnam Combat Veteran, portrait artist, a man with a mission, and not from any of us.Two scriptural references came to mind as I watched the video of Michael speaking at the 7th of February Rotary International meeting in Seattle. Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NLT) and Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (NLT)Here is a story of a man, who, a few years ago, retired from his business in order that he could draw portraits of those who have fallen in the GWoT. Why? Watch the video, he explains it best. He didn’t know why at first, but the message seems to have been clarified now in the 550 (as of the morning of 2/7/2007) portraits he has completed. 2 a day and he is very good at what he does. Humble, too (watch the video).If you haven’t watched the video yet, here’s a teaser as to how he got started on this path”

“I found myself coming back from Vietnam, and I had a hard time for a few years just being able to feel. Took a lot of work by a lot of my friends, my wife, and a lot of people who loved me to allow me to reach this stage, where I could actually feel.

“Evening Magazine two years ago decided to do a little piece on all the celebrity portraits that I had done. We did a little five minute piece, it was called “Miller Time”…

“At the end of it, I said something to John Miller. I said, “You know, I’ve drawn the Pope, six presidents, and 137 Playboy playmates.” John said to me, he said, “I guess that about does it all for you.” And I said “Yep. That was it.”

“That piece made it into the Evening Magazine piece. I believe that piece is why then – the next day it was distributed around the country – I believe that that comment is why I’m standing up here today.

“Two days after that piece aired across the country I got a call from a young woman in Boise, Idaho. Her name was Cherice Johnson. She said to me, “How much would you charge me to do a portrait of my husband?”

Not so strange to me any more, that people “back into” such callings, not even realizing at the time, how their life has prepared them for such a time as this. This is but one more story, full of an invisible design for the life of Michael Reagan.

Micheal has set up the Fallen Heros Project as a non-profit organization. Donations can be made to support him in his work.Thank God for a man of such talent to bring solace to the families who have paid the price of freedom for many, our citizens and others of the world.Please pass the story along, it’s one worth reading.H/T: Mudville Gazette

The current subtopic of this series is the Combat Systems Training Team (CSTT) issues. To recap, in 1992, COMNAVSURFLANT did have a long standing instruction mandating the establishment of CSTTs on all ships. COMNAVAIRLANT did not. Not to cast any disparaging remarks, but I recall on several occassions, the offer had been made to some AIRLANT counterparts, to provide them a floppy with the instruction already formatted in WordPerfect for use. A few quick edits and an admiral’s signature and Voila! Ready to levy new requirements on the Fleet…..in particular, the carrier sailors. When the accident first occurred, I had flashbacks of standing in my office, telling them we were happy to provide them with the documents, because we liked it so well, we thought they would, too.

It didn’t happen, until after the event that ended lives and careers.

Had CSTTs been in place that night, more than likely a “simulation/deviation” that would have been briefed for the drill would have been “No live ordnance will be used. When the order is given to ‘Arm SeaSparrow,’ the Sparrow FOC (Firing Officer Console) Observer will stop the operator from leaving the space and question them as what actions they would carry out in a live fire situation, and, if correct, tell them to resume their station and report to the TAS (Target Acquisition System) operator NSSMS was simulated armed.” Problem solved, safety ensured, operator still has to show “smarts.”

It’s not like it would have been a new precedent, where one community “gave” something to the other.

Next post: Explosives Handling Personnel Qualification/Certification Program (EHPQCP)

It’s been pretty slim in terms of comments lately. I did fix the problem I injected into the system, so….feel free to fact check me or add to any discussion. Post trackbacks here, also.

Sea stories. A serial story, today the first part….

Back in “the day,” one of the drills we had to complete on a periodic basis (I believe this one was quarterly), was the Intrusion Drill, know widely by the exercise nomenclature of “Z-5-O” from the list of exercises. This was spoken as “Zulu Five Oscar.”

The general manner of running this drill was your parent squadron would notify one of the other ships in the squadron that they were being tasked to run the drill on you and they gave them a several day time span to do this and then file the grade sheets with the squadron. What were they to do? Send people to your quarterdeck with false/no identification and attempt to be allowed access to the ship without and escort and being properly recorded in the security log at the Quarterdeck. The idea was to see if the august trio of inport watch standers (the Officer of the Deck (OOD), Petty Officer of the Watch (POOW) and Messenger of the Watch (MOOW), would properly assess the person asking to come aboard was not to be allowed unhindered access to the vessel.

The normal inport quarterdeck of any ship in that era was manned by these three men and, during the work day, were generally very busy with handling the ebb and flow of those coming and going, passing ship’s standard routine, routing incoming phone calls (back in the 70’s most ship’s had two, maybe three phone lines, the one to the quarterdeck was the published number and received calls from businesses, other commands, distraught girlfriends wanting to know if their boy friend had arrived yet, the supply center, and the command duty officer from the senior ship at the pier (Pier SOPA) to inform the OOD of a pallet on the pier, or that the man hoisting the Jack (the little flag flown on the jackstaff on the bow (the “flag” in the Navy is called the “Ensign” and it is hoisted on the staff at the stern) didn’t have his hat on properly at morning colors, or some such complaint about a breach of good order and discipline or general military appearance. And then add the internal issues to the ship to the workload of concerns. I’m not making excuses, I’m just relating the mayhem that is the norm at this watch station on a moment to moment basis.

Being in the “Fat Ship” Navy, we didn’t always seem so serious about things that seemed like purely warfighting issues. After all, we only had four converted from aircraft 20mm cannons as our main battery while at sea, mounted on tripods at the four upper level corners of the after superstructure, all manually aimed (think of the movies of the deck gunners in WWII firing at incoming kamikazes…that was us in the cruise missile and jet age), and inport, two armed men, one the POOW, the other a roving security watch were the combined defense force for 8M gallons of fuels and 600 tons of ordnance. They were equipped with the mighty 1911 .45 caliber pistol and two magazines of ammunition (14 rounds).

However, we were serious about our mission to keep the glamorous aviators and the greyhounds of the sea on task by supplying them with fuel, spare parts and chow.

The drills, and I had only been aboard a few months at this point, and it was my first ship, so I was still but an Ensign, without much understanding of the way things were at this point, were generally done by gentleman’s agreement, unspoken as it was within the fat ship fraternity, to not let your “shipmates” fail, unless they were literally sleepwalking at their duty, in which case, then it was fair to write them up as failing. Minimal effort to catch the “intruders” was sufficient to get a passing score submitted…Most drills ended with “OK, yes, I am. Here, sign the paper” and life went back to “normal” at the Quarterdeck.

And then one day, you know it just had to happen, someone decided to shake things up a bit….

I didn’t have the watch, and it wasn’t even my duty day, yet I did comprehend that when a sailor from the USS SEATTLE (AOE-3) made it past our quarterdeck and was allowed to wander freely, without a visitors badge, it was bad for us.

I don’t recall the specifics, but somehow my division Chief Petty Officer, OSC Michael P. McCaffery, was tasked to do the honors of “counterbattery fire.” For all I know, he may have, and it would have been in character, volunteered to formulate and execute the operation to show our appreciation with the breaking of the status quo at the piers.

The “game rules” for conducting a Z-5-O were roughly thus:

• Three attempts were to be made within the time frame in the tasking letter;
• Real military identification cards could not be used;
• If asked “Are you and intruder?”, the “intruder” had to respond truthfully;
• Copies of military IDs could be used (meaning from the Xerox machine).

A long discussion could launch from this point about how agents of the KGB would never dare to use real stolen ID blanks to try to get access to a ship, that they, too, only had the technology of SAVIN or Xerox to make up false papers for doing their dirty work. On top of that, it was a well known fact that all foreign agents would tell you right away, when specifically questioned, that they were up to the business of stealing military secrets (If only Jack Bauer had known this, it would have saved several presidents lots of international embarrassment).

So…one day, the Operations Officer, LCDR Frank Mueller, presented a letter from the squadron to me. Subject? Yes, you guessed it: Tasking to conduct a Z-5-O on the USS SEATTLE (AOE-3).

You’ll have to come back next Wednesday for more (and not the rest) of the story…

Two years ago, I spent a few days being a serial poster. I had originally done it at the “Junior Blog,” but found the time tonight to bring it all over into the database, update the links and now I’ll invite your attention to the series, “The Value of the Military Skill Set.”

If anyone has any inputs, sent them in. I did it as a sort of “cultural translator” from how “we” so often look at things and don’t seem able to sometimes make a good connection with those who haven’t served….

Here’s the index for your reading enjoyment:

Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII: “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

Last post on the topic…

The roots of the Combat System Training Teams (CSTT) grew from the Engineering Casualty Control and Damage Control Training Teams (ECCTT/DCTT), where were put in place in the mid-late 70s in response to the poor maintenance condition of the ships in the later part and post- Vietnam War era. There, the standing up of the Propulsion Examination Boards (PEBs) in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, required a ship have an organic training capability. As best I can figure, this came from a philosphy that while an individual crew/watch team might perform well today, was there a reasonable expectation it would do so tomorrow, a month or a year from now. I can further speculate, but I never read anything that would connect this next set of dots, that the PEB and the inspections they performed, the Light Off Exam (LOE) and the Operational Propulsion Plant Exam (OPPE) had been “lifted” from the Nuclear Navy’s rigorous system of ensuring the safety of those operations.

The processes of the CSTT modeled the ECCTT/DCTT ones, which, as I discussed some time back, was a result of professional plagiarism, in a good way. One of the significant parts of the training scenarios is to plan for possible safety problems and then make sure the training team members are knowledgeable about the systems and able to step in and stop the drill if such a problem arises. Sometimes, separate safety observers were stationed to specifically watch for problems, while the main training team members are running the drills, or observing the crew’s operations.

During the pre-brief for the drills, the CSTT procedures required detailed discussions of the simulations and variations for real operations, and the safety concerns. Before the drills ran, the CSTT was to walk through the spaces and check to general safety status of the area, as well as to check particular equipment settings. The final reports to the CSTT team leader required “all safety checks completed” before the training scenario would commence.

This set of procedures may have rendered this thread of posting completely moot, had there been a CSTT established, qualified and trained aboard SARATOGA that night….

to be continued…

Open trackbacks! Now, if I could just get comments working…if you have one, email it until I can get the background issues cleared up. I’m sure I can kludge it in when I get it….

So, post your work here!

Sea stories?? Yes…it will be here in a few hours…busy day here…it also will be in the “Australian” theme of the previous two weeks….UPDATE: Here is the promised story

I had a Royal Australian Naval Officer, LCDR Kim Bailey-Jones, as my project officer for the PERRY Class FFG Combat Direction Systems computer program. This was a standing exchange billet, as the RAN had 4 FFGs in their fleet and cost shared in the maintenance and upgrades for the program.

Money was getting tight in the 1994-95 time frame for the military in general, and we regularly received calls from the main program sponsor, Program executive Officer – Theater Air Defense (PEO-TAD) to recall funds from the authorized “SEATASK.” On most occasions, I was asked to respond with how to we might absorb a $1.1M cut (for an overall funding line of $11M) for the various PEO-TAD projects covered. LCDR Jones sat down and sharpened his pencil and typing effort in a spreadsheet, so as to make his point in the upcoming Quarterly Progress Review to our TAD sponsors.

As we were gathered in the large command auditorium, and it was LCDR Jone’s turn to review his project’s status. He got to his budgeting slide and said: “If you can’t give me this much, then just cancel the program and save the money (which was several million).” Of course, he has pre-briefed the “bombshell” up the chain of command and had approval to say such a thing.

Bottom line, the expertise required to safely and responsibly maintain the program needed 4 discrete fields of expertise, and his bottom line funding line represented the barest of funds to keep those four people on staff for such work. Well, the PEO Rep, an Engineering Duty Captain certainly was taken back, but, when Kim made his case, his logic was infallible and there really wasn’t much to be said, but just to note the amount of funding that must remain in place if the FFG-7 Class was to stay at sea.

Oh, I had a Canadian Armed Force officer on staff, too….